The present invention relates to footwear, and, more particularly, to children""s shoes, boots and the like with storage.
Parents wish to have their children appropriately dressed for the season. Inclement weather, heavy rains, snow and cold are good reasons for children to wear protective footwear.
But getting children to cooperate and wear such things is not an easy matter. Therefore any method or feature that encourages child cooperation in the wearing of proper footwear is welcome. It is even desirable that children look forward to wearing their footwear, to using it well, and to maintaining continued ownership.
Techniques for encouraging cooperation of children have filled many volumes of learned discourse. There is no magic formula for successfully engaging of a child""s attention and successfully achieving a desired behavior. Certainly bribery (with candy and ice cream) can be attempted, but this only has marginal impact and if done too often can have ill effects. Flattery often works with the parents, but there is scant evidence that a child will behave as desired on a consistent basis simply based on flattery alone.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide articles of footwear whose design and function can encourage cooperation of a child for donning and conserving of same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide footwear with storage features that will be appreciated by a youthful user.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable storage device that a child will be enthused to use.
These and other objects are well met by the presently disclosed footwear having an attractive and familiar storage pack affixed thereto, such as a backpack. The backpack is a popular functional article for the average school-age child, and its attachment to an article of footwear has distinct advantages. Alternatively, footwear having a gentler or more feminine packaging, such as a ditty bag, or a soft pouch, affixed to a boot, also serves the objects of the present invention. The present invention discloses footwear with added features. These features are intended to have an attractiveness or familiarity for a child and which also may serve a useful storage or other function.
Embodiments of the invention provide footwear with storage and other features. In one embodiment of the present invention, footwear is provided that has storage compartments and pockets, such as provided by a backpack specially attached thereto. Preferably the footwear is a pair of children""s boots and a storage pack is attached to the upper portion of each boot. The upper portion has a front, side and rear extent above the sole and heel, and the storage pack can be attached to any of these extents. The storage pack is designed to be attractive to the child user, as well as providing a storage function.
Preferred features of storage packs according to the invention are attractiveness to a child (either by familiarity or some other special creative feature) and provision of useable storage ability, in a totality that engages the attention of the child, and being readily attachable in a practical manner to footwear. Reflective tape can be added to the storage pack to provide added safety when the footwear is worn at night.
The storage packs on boots are attractive and also enable safe storing of small items such as money or keys. Preferably a mesh is used on the storage pack that is sporty and current-looking and favors drying.
The system of attachment of the storage pack to the boot is either direct, such as by sewing or by a preferred flexible attachment member. Use of the latter can avoid tearing or opening up of leakage sites where the storage pack is attached to the boot.
In another aspect of the invention, footwear and storage apparatus is provided with a foot covering having an upper portion, a heel and a sole, a storage pack, the storage pack having at least one storage compartment, and the at least one compartment having an ingress opening and a closure, with the closure selectively limiting access to the compartment via the ingress opening, and the storage pack for mounting on the foot covering. In one embodiment, there is a pocket defining a second storage compartment, wherein the storage pack is an attachable backpack store, ditty bag store, or pouch store, and this xe2x80x9cstorexe2x80x9d is proportioned and configured to be attached to the upper portion of the footwear. In one practice of the invention, the storage pack is a storage compartment attached to the upper portion, and the storage compartment is defined as attractive to a child based on having a familiar configuration from the class of goods generally referred to as a backpack, ditty-bag or pouch with multiple stores.
In a further embodiment, the portion has a front extent, side extent and rear extent and the storage pack is attached to one of these extents, with the foot covering comprising one boot of a pair of boots. The storage pack may further have an association feature, wherein a school child can associate the association feature with an article of common usage from the class of goods including a backpack, a ditty-bag or a pouch with multiple stores. Thus a miniature backpack is attractive to a child and as attached to a boot draws the child""s attention, for example. Preferably the closure defines an adjustable closure mechanism, such as a draw string, elastic tape, string, zipper, hook and eye, button, pin, clip, or the like.
Various comfortable and interesting specialty materials may be used in practice of the invention to create an attractive mode. The attractive mode may include mesh, felt, fuzzy and furry materials. It will further be appreciated that the exposed surfaces of the foot covering may be provided with a variety of colors and patterns, including logos, insignia, and names.